Of sci-fi geeks, rainbow rebellion, a gay barman, incompetent councils and "You can fill my hole again"

Now that's what I call a weapon!

It's another snippets post today. dear reader:

• The dark side of the Force news: Darth Vader’s lightsaber has been sold for £2.7million at auction - making it the most expensive Star Wars prop in history. Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man suit, Indiana Jones' bullwhip and holster, and the Platform 9¾ sign from Harry Potter all surpassed their expected sale price. There's some rich geeks out there...
• 90s student bedsit music news: After seven years of inactivity, Radiohead has announced a reunion tour. I wonder how all that teenage angst will go down, now they're all in their 50s?
• Plucky gays news: A rainbow road crossing ("crosswalk") in Orlando that formed part of the memorial for victims of the Pulse gay nightclub massacre in 2016 has become a pivot for rebelliousness. Florida's governor - and grade-A cunt - Ron DeSantis ordered it to be overpainted, and protestors keep using chalk to colour it in again, despite the fact he sent in the state troopers to make arrests. I hope his blood pressure goes into overdrive!
• Guess who's pulling your pint today? news: Film star Rupert Everett has lent his support to a campaign to save his local village pub, doing shifts behind the bar. I can't wait to hear him say "Hotpot, Ken?"
• Bureaucratic incompetence news: A non-smoker who lives in London has been fighting a £433 penalty and conviction for "dropping a cigarette butt" - 200 miles away in Manchester! You really couldn't make it up...

• Oldest bitch in town news: Farewell Baddie Winkle, nonagenarian model, influencer and internet personality, whose unforgettable slogan was "Stealing your man since 1928"...
• And finally... Among another mismatched list of fellow celebrants that includes the peerless Sylvester, Idris Elba, Tim Henman, Jo Anne Worley, Macy Gray, Spitting Image creator Roger Law, Greg Rusedski, Mathew Horne, Pippa Middleton, Emily Maitlis, CeCe Peniston and - erm - Buster Bloodvessel of Bad Manners, troubled tabloid fodder and founder member of Atomic Kitten, Kerry Katona is 45 years old today. Although she'd left the group by the time this became the girls first #1 hit - and was edited out of later versions of the video in favour of her replacement - here is the original:

Atomic Kitten - Whole Again

I love that song - unsurprisingly, since it was written by Andy McCluskey of OMD - and have happy memories of seeing the girls (minus Kerry) perform it live at the post-Pride festival [when such a thing still existed] at Finsbury Park way back in 2001. We, of course, changed the lyrics to "You can fill my hole again". As you do.

And the weather? Windy, but lovely and warm. The garden's been watered, and all's right with the world. Apart from the "demon children" next door, of course.

The melding of the Gay Multiverse

When significant events in the the gay calendar collide, can mayhem be far behind..?

Today is not only the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest aka "The Gay World Cup" (and our raucous party here at Dolores Delargo Towers to mark the occasion), not only our beloved "niece" Baby Steve's birthday [shy, unassuming thing that he is, as the pic above proves]...

...but it also happens to be the International Day Against Homophobia [originally founded to commemorate the World Health Organization's decision in 1990 to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder on this date in 1990, it has now [inevitably; sigh...] been co-opted by other ideologies to include trans people as well, for some reason]!

It is shocking, in this day and age - we are in the third decade of the 21st century, not some Victorian pseudo-puritan nor Medieval god-fearing feudal world, ffs! - that in 64 UN member states homosexuality remains illegal, and in at least seven (if not more) punishable by death! Mali, Uganda, Guinea Bissau, Iran, Peru and Afghanistan have been particularly rabid in recent times in their crackdowns. Even in the so-called "civilised world", Eastern European states such as Russia and its allies and even EU member state Hungary continue to harass, punish and imprison gay people for no reason other than bigotry, and in the "saintly" US of A same-sex marriage and other rights are under attack in numerous Trump-loving states.

Even as I continue the tidy-up and preparations for the party, I still make time for this message to homophobes everywhere...

GayClic Collab Against Homophobia - Fuck You!

It's traditional.

Of superheroes, gentlewomen, "killer" courtiers, nutjobs, moose and biology

Goodnight, Rose.

Another snippets post today, dear reader...

• Royal gossip news: RIP, David Sassoon, couturier to the Royal Family (and other stars). Apparently, during a fitting at Kensington Palace, he threw open the door of Princess Diana’s sitting room - and knocked over three-year-old Prince William. “Oh, my god, I’ve killed the future King of England,” he recalled thinking.
• Holy handiwork, Batman! Two policemen dressed up as the Caped Crusaders to arrest criminals operating illegal gambling on Westminster Bridge.
• Bereft gentlewomen news: After 140 years in circulation the upper-class equivalent of Cosmo, The Lady magazine has ceased publication. Now where am I going to look for a respectable butler for Dolores Delargo Towers?
• American lunatic evangelist news: Airport scanners turn you gay, according to a self-proclaimed "Christian Nationalist" podcaster in that bastion of common sense, Tennessee. He calls them "gay beams". I call him "sectionable".
• Moose on the loose news: A surprise TV hit show has arrived - bizarrely it is 24-hour coverage of the annual mass migration of moose/elk across Sweden!

• And finally - shock news: A woman is a woman. Doh!

Chaka Khan - I'm Every Woman

And the weather? Colder than we have been used to, but at least there's no rain on the horizon for the long Easter weekend!

"What do you think? Gorgeous, huh?"

Very many happy returns to the fantabulosa and multi-talented Harvey Fierstein, who blows out 70 candles on his cake today!

A creative genius of a man - among his triumphs, he wrote and directed (and starred in) the original Torch Song Trilogy on stage and the film adaptation, wrote the book and lyrics for Jerry Herman's La Cage Aux Folles, and the book for Cindi Lauper's triumphal Kinky Boots. On stage, he was the original "Edna Turnblad" in Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman's musical Hairspray, "Tevye" in Fiddler On The Roof, and replaced Douglas Hodge as "Albin/Zaza" in La Cage. On screen, he was in Mrs Doubtfire and Independence Day, episodes of Cheers and Murder She Wrote, and has done numerous voiceovers for the likes of The Simpsons and Mulan. Phew!

Needless to say, we adore him.

Here are a few highlights of the man's talents, starting with one of the best monologues of 'em all...

You Can't Stop The Beat - Hairspray

And finally, as Gay Pride is just around the corner, this:

Harvey Fierstein on Gay Pride

Harvey Forbes Fierstein (born 6th June 1954)

Dizzying

It's another "snippets" post today, dear reader!

• Sad news: We raise our glasses in tribute, as the world bids a fond farewell to eccentric centenarian style maven Iris Apfel, "Patron Saint" here at Dolores Delargo Towers, doyenne of magazine covers and fashion shoots across the globe at an age when most grannies are content to put their feet up and watch daytime telly, who has departed to preside over Fabulon. "I don't do minimal" was her watchword. Amen to that! [More Iris here, here, here, here and here]
• "Woke gone mad" news: Children's classic Mary Poppins is the latest film to be subject to the seemingly never-ending tide of revisionist editing of history, as the British Board of film classification has increased its rating from "U" (unclassified) to "PG" (parental guidance needed), due to that fact that it uses the word "Hottenot" to describe South African native tribesmen. WTF?!
• Rimming on TV news: Queer As Folk - the original UK Channel 4 series, not the tacky American remake that went on far, far too long - is celebrating 25 years since it shocked, and changed, the television-viewing world. Here's that rimming scene, for your delectation. You're welcome.
• Dubious "gay allies" news: None other than millionaire thug Mike Tyson, after being challenged by the utterly fearless Peter Tatchell, has made a surprisingly positive statement about gay rights, saying: “I oppose all discrimination against gay people, OK?”.

• And finally: Britain's favourite sexy gay pop-minx Olly Alexander has finally released the video (and full version) of his UK entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024! Verrrry Pet Shop Boys...

Olly Alexander - Dizzy

I would give you an update on today's weather, but it's shit, so I won't bother...

Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

It's been a "same old, same old" day at work...

...but a lot going on, news-wise!

It's twenty years since the abolition of the despised "Section 28" anti-gay legislation in the UK - yet here we are in 2023, and in a move more extreme that anything that nasty piece of legislation ever achieved, the paranoid fascists in Putin's benighted Russian despotate have decided that a non-existent "international LGBT public movement" is "an extremist organisation" to be banned. Dangerous lunacy, or a diversion from the failings of the war in Ukraine and the Russian economy? Or both?

There's been a slew of deaths - most notably, the controversial Nobel Peace Prize-winning centenarian statesman Henry Kissinger, whose legacy was either that it was his hard work that led to the end of the bitter Arab-Israeli wars in the 1970s and also paved the way for détente with the Eastern Bloc countries so easing the path out of the Cold War, or else it was his intervention that prolongued the horrors of the Vietnam War by authorising the bombing of then-communist-occupied Laos and Cambodia - a move that facilitated the rise of the genocidal Pol Pot regime - and the part he played in providing tacit support to the brutal dictatorships in Chile and Argentina enabled those dictators to "disappear" thousands of their own people and decimate the economies of their countries. You choose.

The deaths were also announced of former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer under both Blair and Brown Alistair Darling, the stalwart of the classic Scouse TV soap Brookside for 17 years "Jimmy Corkhill" aka Dean Sullivan, and...

...the man with the worst dentistry in pop history, founder-member and singer-songwriter of The Pogues Shane McGowan! Best-known, of course, for that perennial Xmas favourite Fairytale of New York (with the lovely Kirsty McColl), I've chosen this one instead by way of a tribute:

The Pogues - Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

There's going to be a helluva party in Fabulon tonight when Shane reunites with Kirsty.

---

And, finally...

It's St Andrew's Day today! Have some Scottish shortbread.

Enjoy!

I've gotta go and taste Saturday's high life

WHAT. A. DAY! More than a million people, of all creeds, colours, ages, sexualities and identities gathered in the centre of London on Saturday for one occasion - the biggest event London has - Gay Pride!

Having started our day in the customary way - assembled at Our Sal's pub The Shaston Arms off Carnaby Street for bacon butties and fizz and final touches to the outfits and gossip and a few photos...

...we yomped down to Piccadilly to bag a prime spot opposite Fortnum & Masons to wait for the procession to arrive, buzzing with excitement and anticipation.

Eventually, with the roar of the Dykes on Bikes up the road, it certainly did arrive! Our gang (Me, Madam Arcati, Hils, Crog, Baby Steve, Houseboy Alex, John-John, Sal, Lou, Carol, Jen, Mark and "official photographer" Bence) stood for five hours, watching a wildly colourful panoply of representatives from community groups and charities, campaign groups, the inevitable corporates, educational bodies, the NHS, the armed forces, sports clubs, politicos, unions and associations, choirs, bands, religious groups, trans groups, the Masons(!) and Morris dancers(!); everything from puppy slaves and furries to drag queens and bull dykes, hunks, twinks, families with toddlers, older gays on double-decker buses, Z-list celebs, even David Furnish - you name it, they were there!

And everyone seemed to want their photo taken with us!

We didn't even see Peter Tatchell, but (of course) he was there:

Understandably, there had to be a point at which a combination of bladder pressure and aching feet was going to encourage us (reluctantly) to leave - and even after all that time, the parade extended as far as the eye could see!

Here's the "official" Pride in London synopsis of the parade:

Utter joy...

I haven't, of course, forgotten that it's a Tacky Music Monday - so let's have something rather appropriate from the irrepressible Miss Pearl Bailey [not that I would ever call her "tacky" - I wouldn't dare - but this particular production is so cheesy and camp, it fits the bill], shall we?!

Pearl Bailey - Before The Parade Passes By

It's been a jolt to be back in work today, dear reader. Have a good week.

[cick any pic to embiggen]

Sorry seems to be the hardest word

I'm re-posting this from the venerable Peter Tatchell, just because it is big news worth re-posting:

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, has said “sorry” to the LGBT+ community for his force’s past homophobic persecution. He’s the first UK police chief to apologise.

In a personal letter to human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, which was read out in the House of Lords, at today’s launch of the #ApologiseNow campaign, Sir Mark wrote:

“The Met has had systems and processes in place which have led to bias and discrimination in the way we have policed London’s communities, and in the way we have treated our officers and staff, over many decades. Recent cases of appalling behaviour by some officers have revealed that there are still racists, misogynists, homophobes and transphobes in the organisation, and we have already doubled down on rooting out those who corrupt and abuse their position.”

Sir Mark concluded; “I am clear that there is much for us to do. I am sorry to all of the communities we have let down for the failings of the past and look forward to building a new Met for London, one all Londoners can be proud of and in which they can have confidence.”

LGBT+ rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who led negotiations for the Met’s apology, said:

“We thank Sir Mark Rowley for being the first UK police chief to say sorry. His apology is a ground-breaking step forward that will, we hope, spur other police forces to follow suit. It draws a line under past Met persecution. This will help strengthen LGBT+ trust and confidence in the police; encouraging more LGBTs to report hate crime, domestic violence and sexual assault.”

The launch of the #ApologiseNow campaign, which is bidding to secure apologies from all UK Chief Constables, was hosted by Baroness Helena Kennedy KC and featured a video by the late TV star Paul O’Grady, recorded before his death. In it, Paul urged the police to say sorry for the often abusive, and sometimes illegal, way they treated LGBT+ people

Paul O’Grady backed the apology campaign based on his personal experience of police victimisation. He was present during a police raid on the gay bar, the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London, on 24 January 1987. He described the raid as “homophobic…we were being treated like animals.”

The launch event heard testimony from LGBTs who were insulted and assaulted by the police. We heard from campaigner Alan Shea about homophobic police persecution on the Isle of Man, and the successful 2022 campaign to get the island’s Chief Constable to say sorry – the first police chief in the British Isles to do so.

Other police services across the UK are currently engaging with the #ApologiseNow campaign, but as discussions are at an early stage we will not be naming them.

“We are not asking the police to apologise for enforcing the law, but to apologise for the often illegal and abusive way they enforced it,” said Peter Tatchell, Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation.

“Officers raided gay bars, clubs and even private birthday parties, insulting LGBTs as ‘poofs’ and ‘queers’. They gave the names and addresses of arrested gay men to local papers, which led to some being evicted, sacked and violently beaten. Police harassed LGBTs leaving gay venues and arrested same-sex couples for kissing, cuddling and holding hands, right up until the 1990s.

“The police did not make the law but they chose to enforce it in ways that today would be deemed illegal and unacceptable. They went out of their way to target gay and bisexual men to boost their arrest figures and ‘crime fighting’ reputation. Young handsome male officers were sent into public toilets and parks, where they lured gay men into committing offences and then arrested them. These so-called ‘pretty police’ acted as agents provocateurs.

“The yearly average of homosexual offences recorded by the police in England and Wales was nearly three times greater after the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality in 1967, than it was in the previous eight decades of total criminalisation – clear evidence of a police witch-hunt.

“Police forces in New York, Copenhagen, Sydney, Berlin, Amsterdam, Montreal and San Francisco have apologised, as has the Chief Constable of the Isle of Man. UK police should do the same,” said Mr Tatchell.

Paul O’Grady’s account of the police raid on the Royal Vauxhall Tavern on 24 January 1987:
“Police have apologised all around the world for their behaviour all those years ago. I think it is about time the British police did the same thing and said we are so sorry for what happened, because it was unnecessary. It was homophobic,” said Mr O’Grady

“I’d only been there for about ten minutes and a copper burst in the dressing room. I thought he was a stripper. He was so rude and so aggressive. And when I came out on the stage, they were all wearing rubber gloves. I said: ‘Oh good, have you come to do the washing up?’ There was pandemonium and people were scared.

“I was called a lascivious act in the South London Press and to tell you the truth I was delighted about that.

“Past injustices often cross my mind and this is one of them. The bloody cheek of them. It was disgusting, it was just offensive. We were being treated like animals. Pure homophobia that’s what it was. And nothing else will make me change my mind. So apologise, because I know where you are!” said Mr O’Grady.

Peter Tatchell added: “In the 1980s, we had the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, James Anderton, saying that gay people were ‘swirling round in a cesspit of their own making.’ He gave a green light for the police across the country to persecute our community.

“At the height of this persecution in 1989, there were 1,718 convictions and cautions for so-called ‘gross indecency’ between men – almost as many as in 1954-55 when male homosexuality was totally illegal, and the country was gripped by a McCarthyite-style anti-gay witch hunt.

“If the police say they have changed, they need to show it by acknowledging past wrongs. They need to follow the lead of the Met Police Commissioner. All Chief Constables should apologise for the many decades of past police harassment. Apologise now!”

The #ApologiseNow petition is now live at ApologiseNow.com

Together always?

UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDaHoT) today:

As we mark the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, we face a stark fact. In every corner of the world, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) people continue to face violence, persecution, hate speech, injustice and even outright murder.

Meanwhile, retrograde laws continue to criminalise LGBTQI+ people around the world, punishing them for simply being who they are. Each assault on LGBTQI+ people is an assault on human rights and the values we hold dear.  We cannot and will not move backwards.

The United Nations firmly stands with the LGBTQI+ community, and will continue working until human rights and dignity are a reality for all people.

I renew my call to all Member States to uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and end the criminalisation of consensual same-sex relations and transgender people.  Being yourself should never be a crime.

In keeping with this year’s theme - “Together Always:  United in Diversity” - I call on the world to speak with one voice to eliminate the stigma, discrimination, harmful practices and often deadly violence endured by LGBTQI+ people.

Human rights are non-negotiable.  They belong to every member of the human family — no matter who they are or whom they love.  Let’s continue working to build a peaceful, just world in which all people are free and equal in dignity and rights.

Let's take a look at what actually is happening in some of those member states, shall we?

• USA
• Australia 
• UK
• France
• Uganda
• Russia (of course)
• Furthermore, a recent study showed Lesbians are being coerced into unwanted heterosexual marriages in Canada, Indonesia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Malawi, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Tunisia and Ukraine.

Despite some good news, such as Switzerland and Cuba legalising same-sex marriage, and Antigua, Barbados, Saint Kitts and Nevis decriminalizing homosexuality, let's charge our glasses for our traditional toast:

To the governments in the bulleted list above, and those of Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Oman, Jamaica, Myanmar, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Zambia, Sudan, Iran, Maldives, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Italy, Romania and Bulgaria; and to all the insane Trump acolytes and wannabees (like DeSantis), the pseudo-religious evangelists, imams and and rabbis, the tin-pot dictators, rappers, media moguls and to anyone who espouses hate against us...

...All, together, now!

GayClic Collab Against Homophobia - Fuck You!

---

FOOTNOTE:

Fun fact for IDaHoT:

Did you know that Grandpa Walton was gay and Grandma Walton a lesbian? Well there goes the illusion of old time American values. Good night, John Boy.

When Ellen Corby (Grandma Walton) died in 1999, the chief mourner at her funeral was Stella Luchetta. If this lady was mentioned at all in the press, it was as friend and/or caretaker. However, it was an open secret in Hollywood that Stella was much more than that. The couple had been in a committed relationship for forty-five years by then. Ellen's last words were spoken to Stella. They were 'love you'.

When we look at the history of the Gay Rights Movement in the USA, only a handful of people stand out. One of those is Harry Hay. Harry was a member of the original gay rights organisation, the Mattachine Society. Yet go back to 1934, to the very beginning of this civil rights story, and look beyond Mr Hay to his boyfriend... young Grandpa Walton (Will Geer).

It's all just a little bit of history repeating

Evil spans the generations, it seems...

...somebody fetch me a custard pie!

Furious Faggot

The incomparable and tireless champion of gay rights, civil rights and free speech, Patron Saint here at Dolores Delargo Towers, Mr Peter Tatchell is 70 years old today!

From his own Foundation's press release:

Peter Tatchell is one of Britain’s best known and longest surviving LGBT+ and human rights campaigners. He’s supported nearly every major human rights campaign for the last half a century – and taken on everyone from Mike Tyson to Tony Blair and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

He first began campaigning while still at school in 1967 aged 15, against the death penalty and the execution of Ronald Ryan in his home state of Victoria, Australia. He went on to champion indigenous Aboriginal rights and oppose Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War. On moving to London in 1971, he was prominent in the newly-formed Gay Liberation Front and ... helped organise the UK’s first LGBT+ Pride parade in 1972 – this July being the 50th anniversary...

He stood as the Labour candidate in the notorious 1983 Bermondsey by-election – often regarded as the dirtiest, most violent and homophobic election in Britain since 1945. In 1990 he was a founding member of the LGBT+ campaign group OutRage! Its activism against homophobic discrimination included the most numerous and sustained direct action protests in Britain since the suffragettes.

Over the last five decades, he’s participated in 3,000 peaceful protests, been arrested 100 times and suffered 300 violent assaults by homophobes and far right extremists, including 50 attacks on his flat. He has described the violent assaults as like living through a low-level civil war. For many years he suffered from PTSD.

He was beaten unconscious by President Mugabe’s bodyguards when he tried to make a citizen’s arrest in Brussels in 2001 and suffered a severe beating by neo-Nazis in Moscow in 2007 when he supported the bid by Russian LGBTs to hold a Pride parade.

“My coordination, memory, balance, vision and concentration are somewhat impaired. Campaigning is more difficult but I still manage. I’ve no regrets. Compared to the jailing and torturing of human rights defenders in China, Russia, Syria and Uganda, I’ve got off lightly,” said Mr Tatchell.

All hail!

We would really love to see the recent film of the great man's life - co-produced (i.e. funded) by Sir Elton John and Peter Furnish, and featuring (among others) commentary and tributes from esteemed gayers such as Stephen Fry and Sir Ian "Serena" McKellen - Hating Peter Tatchell, but unfortunately it seems to have been snapped up by that behemoth Netflix, a service to which we stalwart BBC-ers would never subscribe, so I doubt we will get the opportunity for a while...

Regardless, we charge our glasses to a true hero!

Peter Gary Tatchell (born 25th January 1952)

Today also happens to be Burns' Night - yet another excuse for Scots to get pissed on whisky and eat pig guts - so what better way to pay tribute to Mr Tatchell's milestone birthday than with one of Scotland's finest bands and an appropriate choon?

Bluebells - Young at Heart

---

OCH, AYE!

click to embiggen

Don't raise your voice, improve your argument

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."

"Don't raise your voice, improve your argument."

"We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low."

"I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this. I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place. I am as passionate about this campaign as I ever was about apartheid. For me, it is at the same level."

Desmond Tutu calls for a world that is Free & Equal

RIP, Most Reverend Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu OMSG CH GCStJ (7th October 1931 – 26th December 2021)

Yodel-eh-eh-o!

The Williamine's been flowing in little Switzerland, as their referendum on legalising equal marriage was won with a landslide last night!

On this Tacky Music Monday, where else need I go than Eurovision to find something appropriate from that country to provide us with a wake-up call?

Pepe Lienhard Band - Swiss Lady [Eurovision Song Contest, 1977]

Never in a million years would I have ever thought I'd find a cover version of such nonsense, however, yet... Here's a Slovenian a-cappella ensemble doing just that!

Bassless - Swiss Lady

Have a good week, dear reader.

You started this fire down in my soul

How remiss of me. I neglected to pay tribute to another of our icons who turned 60 years old yesterday - the fantabulosa, fiery, elfin-like Jimmy Somerville!

Catapulted to fame in the midst of the gayer-than-gay pop explosion of the early 1980s in the UK, he (and his fellow angry young gayers in Bronski Beat) eschewed all the headline-grabbing New Romantic flounces or "gender-bending" of fellow pioneers like Steve Strange, Boy George, Marc Almond and their ilk in favour of pertinent anger. Gay rights were the issue of the moment, given the fact that unlike many countries across the world the UK still criminalised homosexuality under the age of 21; notoriously, the band's debut album in 1984 - the year I came out! - was indeed titled Age of Consent and featured on its cover all the differing rules that countries across the world applied to gay sex in law.

As I said way back in 2008:

I adored them, and especially Jimmy - small, not particularly attractive, but spunky in every sense of the word - as their rise to fame, and in particular the supremely brilliant Smalltown Boy coincided quite neatly with my own coming out. I was indeed "pushed around, kicked around, always the lonely boy..." I was "the one that they'd talk about around town, when they put you down..."

Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy

The follow-up single from Age of Consent was, if anything, even more powerful:

Bronski Beat - Why?

His split from the Bronskis gave birth to another classic era for Jimmy - no less angry, but (remarkably) even more commercially successful - with The Communards. Here's just two faves from their extensive catalogue:

The Communards - There's More To Love

The Communards with Sarah Jane Morris - Don't Leave Me This Way

Oh, how we danced to that one! Jimmy, despite the demise of band #2, remained (and remains) a force to be reckoned with. His falsetto voice is unique and unmistakeable - and he has chalked up a string of notable choons ever since - including these:

Jimmy Somerville feat. June Miles Kingston - Comment Te Dire Adieu

Jimmy Somerville - You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)

Jimmy Somerville - Travesty

James William "Jimmy" Somerville (born 22nd June 1961), we love you!

[Indeed, a highlight of my life was when we saw him live, back in 2015]

Lest we forget

“We insist on gathering in plain sight every year because for 2,000 years we were told to be invisible. This is the 50th calendar year in which we’ve walked the walk in London. We who were there in 1971 and 1972 walk now on behalf of our contemporaries who are too unwell, locked-down or far away, to join us. Many have already gone to LGBT+ heaven. And we walk in honour of the young who are fighting in every country around the world. We think of LGBTs in Hong Kong, Poland, Chechnya, Brazil and Indonesia, who seek the dignities that ought not be denied to anyone.” - Andrew Lumsden, GLF founder member.

Veterans of the original Gay Liberation Front, led by our hero Peter Tatchell, marched the Gay Pride route to mark 50 years of gay rights marches in the UK yesterday. I only wish I had known about it in advance; I would have gone along to support them.

Peter Tatchell Foundation

Sermon of the Day

Swap the word "feminism" for "gay rights", "women" and "girls" for "homosexuals", "men" and "male" for "heterosexual(s)" and so on in this treatise by Dr Jessica Eaton:

“Feminism is the liberation of women and girls all over the world from the patriarchy and misogyny that continues to harm and oppress them as a class of people. Feminism centres women unflinchingly and unapologetically. Feminism is the conversation about women’s issues in the world; without having to add some tokenistic sentence at the end acknowledging that men also experience some things too. Yah, we know. But we are talking about women right now, so hush.

The problem with saying that we are working towards women becoming equal to men is that it frames men and male cultures as being the optimum culture or the ideal goal that women should reach to become equal. I’m here to say: what a crock of shit. For women to be valid, whole human beings in society – feminism has got to move beyond this notion that women are striving for what men already have.

I don’t want anything men already have. None of it. It’s a mess.”

Amen.

I've seen the lights of gay Broadway, or is it Belfast?

A widely misunderstood fact about the United Kingdom (especially overseas) is that it is not just another name for Great Britain. The latter is the island that includes England, Scotland and Wales; add on Northern Ireland and you get the UK. Tiny as this conglomerate is, each bit of it has separate legislature - and today, despite the fact that in England and Wales the law came into force on 13 March 2014, and in Scotland in December 2014, equal marriage was only legally recognised in Northern Ireland TODAY! About bloody time, too.

Partly by way of celebration, partly because it would have been Miss Gwen Verdon's 95th birthday today, but mainly because we all need a bit of "va-va-voom" to get ourselves in the right frame of mind to get up and out and into work - on this Tacky Music Monday, here's the divine Miss V in a supporting role to our eternal Patron Saint Miss Mitzi Gaynor!

Mitzi Gaynor and Gwen Verdon - Beale Street Blues [from The I Don't Care Girl, 1953]

I've seen the lights of gay Broadway
Old Market Street down by the Frisco Bay
I've strolled the Prado, I've gambled on the Bourse;
The seven wonders of the world I've seen
And many are the places I have been
Take my advice, folks, and see Beale Street first!

You'll see pretty browns in beautiful gowns
You'll see tailor-mades and hand-me-downs
You'll meet honest men, and pick-pockets skilled
You'll find that business never ceases 'til somebody gets killed!

If Beale Street could talk, if Beale Street could talk
Married men would have to take their beds and walk
Except one or two who never drink booze
And the blind man on the corner singing "Beale Street Blues!"

I'd rather be there than any place I know
I'd rather be there than any place I know
It's gonna take a sergeant for to make me go!

I'm goin' to the river, maybe by and by
Yes, I'm goin' to the river, maybe by and by
Because the river's wet, and Beale Street's done gone dry!

Faboo!

Have a good week, dear reader.

Flag-waving?

You, dear reader, will no doubt know already that I am a long-serving campaigner for, and staunch advocate of, the rights and visibility of gay people (and related acronyms). I have hawked many a protest banner, been an active participant in many a rally - not least the Gay Pride March since 1985, from when it was still a valid political statement rather than today's rules-obsessed corporate wank-fest - gathered signatures for petitions against Section 28 and for the equal age of consent, protested the Pope and Putin, and worn both the pink triangle and the rainbow flag as a badge of honour. Out and Proud, indeed.

But what to make of last night's - ahem - Last Night of the Proms?

Far from wanting to sound like Violet, Countess of Grantham, I am patriotic, and a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to such matters. I love a good pageant - and the Royal Family always comes up with goods on that score - and I do believe that the closing session of the most important eight-week musical festival in Britain (and indeed the the world) is, has always, and always should be a moment when everyone who is British [English, Scots, Welsh, Northern Irish] has the opportunity to show their red, white and blue colours. And why the hell not?! Despite the best efforts of the hand-wringing middle-class Guardianistas to upset this with their free hand-outs of EU propaganda, the good old Union Flag is still the predominant visual symbol one expects to see on such a prestigious occasion. Of course, the flags of all nations have always been in evidence as well, but at least they, too, are symbols of nationhood.

US mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton is undoubtedly a fantastically-talented singer. She obviously has a deeply-held pride in being "different"; in being an outspoken advocate for women of her size, and for the visibility of those, like herself, who are bisexual. Good on her, if that is what she wants to do with her influential position as a rising star and public figure. She chose to wear outfits for her appearances on the Last Night in the "colours of bisexual pride", lavender, pink and blue. So far, an excellent way to get a message across.

But what possessed her, or the BBC, or anyone in charge of the night's classic finale, to raise the rainbow flag rather than the British one? She was singing Rule, Britannia [our "second national anthem"], ffs, not Over the Rainbow [which she actually did sing earlier]! I loved seeing rainbow flags in the audience, and especially around conductor Sakari Oramo's podium [where the world's cameras focus so heavily]. But for an American to fail to raise the British flag at this climactic moment of a British celebration was jarring to say the least. Just imagine if someone from the UK had done it at the American Independence Day Concert in Washington, for instance, while The Star-Spangled Banner was playing?

There are times, and - as I know - places where protest and making a statement are necessary, especially when there are so many examples of bigotry, persecution and criminalisation of LGBT people across the globe. Might I humbly suggest that while singing Rule, Britannia was not one of them?

There is no real footage of the Last Night online, so here's a whirlwind tour, accompanied by the traditional Hornpipe:

Last Night of the Proms in one minute

Twelve years before Stonewall...

I cannot tell you what it does to me to hear "pre-Stonewall". And even in our literature, even in the art, "pre-Stonewall", "post-Stonewall". I wrote three books pre-Stonewall and a dozen more post-Stonewall. There’s no demarcation. Gay history is centuries and centuries from the Romans to the Greeks to Oscar Wilde to all kinds of outrages. And those seem to be put back and "pre-Stonewall" is passive. "Post-Stonewall" is brave and dignified. I actually have heard things like that. I’ve talked, I’ve lectured and I’ve been invited all the way from Harvard to USC. And I talk about what it was like, what we had to survive.

Look, "pre-Stonewall" produced Alan Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Oscar Wilde, and I could go on. "Post-Stonewall" produced Bret Easton Ellis, who jumps out of the closet only now and then and then rushes back in, and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, where we’re reduced to clowns for straight people. ...It embarrasses me, it embarrasses me very much because that’s what people expect a gay man to do, to be very precious, and that’s not what we are. A good solid queen I will protect forever, they are heroes. - author John Rechy, interviewed for LA Mag

A fascinating story emerged on the BBC website this morning - the unearthing of a set of photographs of what appears to be a "gay wedding" from 1957, a time when homosexuality was illegal on both sides of the Atlantic and persecution, bullying and discrimination were not merely rife, but state-sanctioned. Apparently, the photos languished in the archives of a photographic processing store in Philadelphia due to the refusal of a member of staff to process them - and when researchers came across their existence they embarked upon a quest to find any trace of the subjects of the photos (presumably with a view of reuniting them with the by-now-in-their-eighties couple) - visit the Our One Story website for more.

The story has only now hit the media over here because, of course, being in America, there are plans to make a "reality TV" show out of the quest. Groan. Do people not do documentaries anymore?!

Regardless, the very fact that such a ground-breaking ceremony took place at all in such a repressive era, and that photographic evidence of it survived, is indeed testimony to Mr Rechy's wise words above - there was a whole gay world, filled with rebels and non-conformists, long before the first handbag was thrown fifty years ago in downtown New York...